THE BELLY IS A RASCAL

ITA HAVE POSTPONED

MONDAY'S DEMO

The ITA have advised me that their decision is based upon the current state of trade reticence.
The trade seems to take comfort in the fact that the Mayor of London is trying his utmost to combat Uber and its powerful friends, to save our three hundred and fifty year old iconic trade.
That may or may not be true - only time will tell.

He is also trying his best to placate a huge number of dissatisfied Taxi drivers, who feel they have been thrown overboard in favour of a rich American conglomerate who pays nothing into our economy, but relies upon UK government subsidies to pay their impoverished 'employees'.
The Mayor's promises have allowed the more apathetic amongst us to plead for a respite while we wait ... wait for what exactly?
Wait until May comes and goes, and Uber renew their license?

The majority of the Taxi trade never Demo.
The majority of the Taxi trade are only too willing to let the minority speak up for them, while they carry on regardless.
The majority of the Taxi trade like to moan about work or the lack of it, or about the roads, or Uber, or TfL, or official statistics that other proactive drivers have uncovered for them - but moaning is about as far as they are prepared to go.
The majority of the trade will not fight, and are not worth fighting for.

Think of the drivers with huge housing costs, children to keep and an overpriced taxi to maintain, who cannot make ends meet; who are pulling their hair out in sheer frustration, caused not by their incompetence, but by TfL's criminality.

Our fight is not against the Mayor.
Our fight is not against the ineffective GLA.
Our fight is against injustice. It is against the deregulation and destruction of our trade.
Our fight is against Cameron, Osborne, Johnson, Anderson, Kramer, Javid and all the other corrupt officials with a vested interest in overseeing our demise.
Our fight is against Daniels, Bertram, Hendy, Mason, Emmerson and all those who seek to destroy our trade for their own personal gain.

SO WHAT HAS THE MAYOR PROMISED?

Hire and reward insurance.
This is already the law.
The fact that it has not been enforced, says more about Transport for London (TfL), than it does the Mayor.

Extra ranks.
For who? Minicabs to sit on, whilst Compliance Officers lounge in some burger bar, out of sight?
What good are extra ranks if they are not policed?
I bet the fog-lit minicabs are jumping for joy though.

Access to more bus lanes.
Why are we not allowed into all bus lanes anyway?
Cycles use them - and they slow buses up far more than Taxis ever could.
And what about Tottenham Court Road?
We know all about the 'Great Bus Scam', but how many buses need the whole of Tottenham Court Road to themselves?

Agreed fare in advance for Private Hire customers.
Another rule that TfL have not enforced.
Private Hire (minicabs) have always been required to quote a fare in advance of the journey.

Phone contact with Customer Service.
TfL are rewriting the rules to accommodate Uber.
Landlines may become a requirement of the past.
What is the point of having any rules or regulations, if they are changed to accommodate the highest bidder?

More Compliance Officers.
Are any of these new officers going to come out after dark?
The lot we have at the moment seem anything but nocturnal.
They drive around during the day, jumping out of vans to nick Taxi drivers fouling ranks, but once the sun goes down they are nowhere to be seen, except a handful huddled in McDonald's, whilst minicabs rank up outside clubs and restaurants with impunity.

Private Hire paying their way on compliance costs.
This is a common sense piece of husbandry.
And a good reason to lower the extortionate price of the Taxi license. I say extortionate, because the trade gets nothing back in return.

Minimum 3 year UK DBS.
A huge step in the right direction.
Dads Defending Daughters called for five years minimum citizenship - but at least three years citizenship is better than a letter of good conduct from an embassy who has little to no knowledge of the applicant.
These new measures might save a person from being raped or murdered.
As our Mayor stated, "Even one is one too many."
Unfortunately, this decision is not in the hands of Sadiq Khan.
This is new legislation we are seeking.
Do not underestimate the bought and paid for MPs and journalists, who will oppose this legislation in favour of thirty pieces of silver. For them, rape is merely collateral damage.
This legislation must be implemented in every workplace, where any applicant is left in charge of children and the vulnerable.
Dads Defending Daughters would like to see DNA tests brought in for all applicants.

The Mayor's intention for minicab proprietors to have Fleet Insurance.
How will this affect Uber? Uber claim they do not have a fleet. They are an IT company.
Finance for fleet insurance will be levied upon the individual driver by the employer.
This is just political rhetoric.

Reviewing ride-sharing with DfT.
Another rule change that our Mayor has no jurisdiction over.
Except those who directly benefit financially, who on God's green earth thinks sharing a minicab with strangers is a good thing?
It is bad enough that the minicab driver may be an unchecked stranger. Now the greedy bastards want our daughters and sons to get into a minicab with strange passengers too!

Topographical tests.
Who cares about Mickey Mouse topographical tests?
It is not the Knowledge of London.
The public will be led to believe minicab drivers actually know what they are doing.
Great public relations for the likes of Uber.

Driving tests.
This is something that is not feasible, and leads me to question the Mayor's motivation.
There are not enough examination centres available to take on an extra hundred thousand advanced driving tests over three years.
Nor is there enough time to allocate and carry out all these tests. Let alone the driving lessons needed to achieve a high enough level of competence.
The Mayor is anything but stupid. He knows this cannot be achieved. Yet he promises it. Why?
It is simpler for TfL to insist that every minicab applicant must have a DVLA pass certificate before applying for a minicab license. And has not merely exchanged their foreign license for a UK one.

Transparency and demarcation for cab related criminal offences and KSI statistics.
Already we are seeing that these are nothing more than meaningless words printed in a quaint little pamphlet, to appease a few worried Taxi drivers.
Where are the Freedom of Information statistics, which were due to be published on 20th September 2016?

Our trade organisations cannot get an acknowledgement, let alone any answers.

Reviewing in-venue minicab operators.
Reviewing what exactly?
Do you believe this dangerous practice will be rectified?
On what grounds?
TfL gave an Operators License to an IT company, for crying out loud!
They sell roundels to absolutely anyone!
They allow unchecked drivers to ferry the vunerable around!
They are never going to change this lucrative activity because of public safety issues.

WHAT ARE OUR DEMANDS?

A full Public Enquiry into Transport for London's corrupt relationship with Uber.
Are we just going to get on with our lives, like this never happened?
Are we supposed to forget those innocent victims of rape and sexual assault?
Are we supposed to forget those drivers who lost their homes?
Forget those drivers who suffered divorce?
Forget those drivers who suffered bankruptcy?
Forget those drivers who are so behind with mortgage payments it will be five or even ten years before they are back on track?
Forget those drivers who had to seek employment elsewhere?
Forget those drivers who suffered a nervous breakdown?
Are we supposed to forget the people who instigated this misery, and let them ride off into the sunset with a golden handshake and a brand new promotion?
Not bloody likely!

No more ineffectual enforcement.
We demand that Compliance Officers do the job they are paid to do.
Are we supposed to sit idly by while minicabs shit all over compliance loopholes, basking on our Taxi ranks, plying for hire in Mayfair and the City?
Is our 'right to work' not worth fighting for?

Capping of minicab licenses.
The government's own transport committee has spoken out against the complete and utter chaos caused by TfL's chaotic road strategy.
The transport committee are fed up with TfL issuing six hundred minicabs every week onto our roads, condoned by the Secretary of State for Business (BIS) and Department for Transport (DfT), and exacerbated by TfL's disastrous Cycle Superhighway.
Day-long congestion and rising levels of pollution is literally choking the life out of 9,500 Londoners every year.
BIS's solution to finding jobs for the unemployable, via mini-cabbing, is ruining Londoners lives.
Big and small businesses are moving away from this purpose built madness, every month.
London is not open - London is locked shut!
This is another problem that is outside the remit of Mayor Khan.
We demand that DfT and BIS curtail this ludicrous situation, promoted by Uber-loving Sajid Javid before he was banished to the political underworld by Theresa May PM.

Greed got us into this mess, and greed will keep us there.
The greed of an uncaring government, who would see us go the same way as the miners, printers and shipbuilders, so they could line their own pockets.
The greed of TfL management under orders from Cameron and Osborne, who in turn were under orders from 'Government' Sachs and other unctuous investors.
These obscene gluttons see rape and sexual assault as acceptable collateral damage, in their grubby quest for a bigger return on their investment.
These gannets are prepared to destroy the lives of good men and women, so they can gorge themselves on the profit of our misery.
Greedy self interested Taxi drivers would rather work on, than fight to stop this unprecedented rise of rape and sexual abuse in minicabs.
Greedy blinkered Taxi drivers with their heads buried in their lolly-bags, would rather let someone else take the time and effort to fight for their jobs.

We will not Demo for the sake of Demoing.
We will not Demo simply because we are angry.
We will not Demo against a fair and proper Mayor.
We will Demo against an unfit and improper regulator.
We will Demo against an unjust government.
We will Demo when they refuse to listen.
We will Demo when they refuse to answer.
We will Demo when they refuse to be accountable.
We will Demo to reverse unfair decisions made by unjust officials.
We will Demo to be heard!

"The belly is a rascal, it doesn't remember how well you treated it yesterday, it'll cry out for more tomorrow." — Alexander Solzhenitsyn